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Albert Camus

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

Thursday, August 27, 2015

The new guy in town has a few secrets - Awakened (Gods & Guardians, #1) by CJ Anderson

Alayna’s plans for a better life are shot to H-E-double toothpicks when she discovers another gift and Dru struggles with keeping his last secret. All the while, the chemistry between them, along with outside forces, pose a threat that could change their futures forever.

Description:

The new guy in town has a few secrets …one of which is the ability to levitate and use telekinesis to move objects – Dru Sanjay hasn’t been able to share his secrets with anyone. That is until he meets…HER.

Alayna West can see and experience emotions as color. Her only desire is to complete high school, go to college and create a better life far away from her rural roots. But plans change when she meets…HIM.

When Dru and Alayna meet they experience a hair raising, skin prickling, and unexplainable connection. As Alayna is drawn into Dru’s world, she learns of the Guardians; others like her who have special abilities, whose genetics can be traced back to the Gods. Only the Gods and the other Guardians are actually extraterrestrials who have been banned from Earth for the last 2,000 years.

Alayna’s plans for a better life are shot to H-E-double toothpicks when she discovers another gift and Dru struggles with keeping his last secret. All the while, the chemistry between them, along with outside forces, pose a threat that could change their futures forever.

EXCERPT

“It all happens so fast. Dru is calling my name and I look up toward the cliff. When I move my head I catch a glimpse of something in my peripheral vision; something big, something that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up straight. It’s some sort of large and scary looking creature and it’s prowling straight toward me.

The creature is as large as a bear, but it has the body and head of a lion with something that looks like a goat rising out of its back and a long tail, at least six feet long, whipping around with the head of what looks to be a large, creepy venomous snake. My pulse quickens as if fear itself were trapping me and I’m incapacitated.

I think I must be either a) dreaming, b) crazy, or c) dead because then I see Dru flying through the air. What the hell? He is going to kill himself! What is he doing?

Dru slams into the monster; it flies through the air and then drops to the ground. As far as I can tell, with the exception of the snake, which is partially smashed beneath the body, the monster is knocked out. The snake head is making a high pitched hissing sound and it makes me feel sick to my stomach.

Then, Dru is right beside me holding me tight against him. Both of our hearts are pounding.

“Alayna! Alayna, luv, are you OK?” Dru asks, his voice uneasy.

I’m baffled. “Me? Am I OK? What about you? You just jumped, no flew, no, I don’t know what the hell you did but you just slammed into a…a …a…was that a chimera?!…and after jumping from that height, you just walked away!” I stammer.

“I know,” Dru says, “and I can explain. But first, I think we need to head back the way we came before our friend wakes up. She is going to be pissed off!”

He grabs my hand and we run. I’m fast, but it’s hard to maneuver through the woods with all the brush and vegetation, much of which is waist high.

We’re about a quarter mile from the motorcycle when we finally see the trail. Dru slows down for just a moment, looks around and grabs my hand. “Faster!” He yells. “It’s coming.”

I chance a quick glance behind us and see three enraged heads. One is roaring, one hissing, and one is making a terrible ear-deafening bleating sound. I run faster than I have ever run before, even faster than yesterday at the track. Adrenaline is rushing through my veins so quickly that it keeps me going.

We’re almost there but the creature is gaining on us. We can see the motorcycle at the bottom of the cliff. All we have to do is run down the hill and turn the corner and we will be home free.”

CJ Anderson has been obsessed with science fiction and fantasy for as long as she can remember. Star Wars, Superman and Transformers are among her earliest memories. But it was Madeline L’Engle’s book, A Wrinkle in Time, that first grabbed her attention as an elementary student to the genre in the world of books. She has been reading Young Adult, Science Fiction and Fantasy ever since!

Creating stories has been a life-long journey for CJ. As a young child she create stories to tell her imaginary friends. Later on in school, when she became bored during class, adventures in fairytale lands, were a common theme running wild in her imagination. It never really occurred to her to write them down, though, until she was older and taking a class on creativity. Once she started writing, she never wanted to stop. She says it’s one of the best decisions she’s ever made.

CJ has been teaching Gifted & Talented for six years and has been both encouraged and inspired by her students. She lives in Iowa with her husband, two beautiful daughters and two cats. When she isn’t writing, teaching or spending time with her family, you can find her working out, reading or fangirling, of course! The God Kissed: Awakened is her first novel and the first book in a planned trilogy.